MOSCOW, February 05. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia provided Tajikistan with material and technical aid worth $862,000 last month under a Russian program aimed at helping the Central Asian state in its fight with drug trafficking, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.

A ministry statement said the overall budget of the 2012-2014 Russian program of financial, material and technical assistance to the Tajik Anti-Drug Agency, supervised by the president of Tajikistan, stood at more than $5.4 million.

At a ceremony on January 29, “the Tajik Anti-Drug Agency received 17 cars worth $338,000, electronic equipment and means of communication worth $425,000, and 300 military outfits worth $99,000,” the statement said.

The ministry said that last year Russia provided Tajikistan with anti-drug assistance worth $2 million and will continue rendering aid to fight the increasing volume of opiates smuggling from Afghanistan to Russia and Europe via Tajikistan.

Russia is one of the largest destinations for heroin from Afghanistan, the world’s main heroin producer. According to Viktor Ivanov, chief of the Federal Drug Control Service, Russia seized 2.6 metric tons of Afghan heroin last year, a 20% increase from the previous year.